ECSA Publications

ECSA regularly publishes new or updated documents with scientific and technical information on the products for users and regulators, which you can read and/or download here :

Label for Immobile Tanks containing Chlorinated Solvents

January 2018

Labels for Drums of Chlorinated Solvents - Perchloroethylene

May 2017

Lables for Drums of Chlorinated Solvents - Dichloromethane

June 2017

Recommendations for Cleaning Machines

March 2017

Storage and Handling of Chlorinated Solvents

September 2016

Information Sheet for Dry-Cleaners

January 2016

Health Profiles - Perchloroethylene

December 2015

Health Profiles - Dichloromethane

December 2015

Product Safety Summaries Product Safety Summaries - Trichloroethylene

November 2015

Product Safety Summaries Product Safety Summaries - Perchloroethylene

December 2015

Product Safety Summaries Product Safety Summaries - Dichloromethane

December 2015

Health Profiles - Trichloroethylene

November 2011

List of Manufacturers of metal degreasing machines

March 2010

Fact Sheet - Closed equipment technology for metal degreasing

February 2008

ECSA Sustainability Programme - Progress report

2007-2012

Tri Charter - For the safe use of Trichloroethylene 2007

2007

Euro Chlor Marine Risk Assessment - Methylene Chloride (DCM)

February 1999

Euro Chlor Marine Risk Assessment - Perchloroethylene (PER)

June 1997

Euro Chlor Marine Risk Assessment - Trichloroethylene (TRI)

June 1997

New study on DCM

February 2018

TRI Authorisations granted

September 2018

Trichloroethylene (TRI) can be used safely under controlled conditions. Five authorisations have been granted to BlueCube Germany (a subsidiary of Olin) to continue to produce TRI for specific uses, for example Industrial Parts Cleaning. Customers of this producer can use TRI for these applications under the conditions set by the EU Commission and the defined risk management measures.

UBA PMT criteria published

February 2018

The German Environment Agency (UBA, Umweltbundesamt) has published the assessment of "Persistence, Mobility and Toxicity (PMT)" with the desire to protect drinking water sources. Applying conservative criteria for PMT as defined by UBA, perchloroethylene (PER) and trichloroethylene (TRI) appear as number 2 and 3 on the report. UBA also aims to establish PMT as an equivalent concern to identify SVHC substance for authorisation under REACH. ECSA does not consider SVHC identification using PMT criteria as the appropriate tool to improve drinking water quality due to this being a pure hazard based approach and thus does not consider risk. TRI is already listed in Annex XIV (authorisation) and today PER is handled almost exclusively in closed systems with no intentional emission to water or soil. For further information see the ECSA position paper on PER here.

New Study on Dichloromethane

February 2018

Together with HSIA, ECSA supported a study to clarify the mode of action of cancer formation for Dichloromethane (DCM). The study results have been published end of 2018. The outcome of the study shows that below the threshold there is no risk of cancer formation related to DCM.

DCM & the Ozone Layer

November 2017

Dichloromethane (DCM) is a highly Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) with a short atmospheric lifetime of only 0.4 years, hence defined as a Very Short Lived Substance (VSLS), but a negligible Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP). Recent publications (e.g. Hossaini et al.) discussed the effect of DCM on the stratospheric ozone, which postulated a high future growth rate of global DCM production and emissions, which led to discussions to include DCM into the Montreal Protocol on the protection of the ozone layer. ECSA and HSIA have provided factual information on global production and emissions by industry, global natural production, behaviour and effect on the stratospheric ozone, and other regulatory developments at a UNEP meeting on the Montreal Protocol in Nov 2017 (available here), based on a scientific assessment of Archie McCulloch (full paper available here; a one-pager summary is also available here).

ECSA is a sector group of

EuroChlor is part of

ECSA – European Chlorinated Solvent Association

Part of Euro Chlor, a Sector Group of Cefic, The European Chemical Industry Council